WHY

STUDY
GRAMMAR

The Need To Study Grammar

English language is considered by
some linguists as a language that is not
as dynamic as other languages;
It is one of the most simple languages
in terms of its form and construction;
Its words contain fewer variations from
their original form (unlike Latin);
- e.g. its substantive has one variation
of case and no distinction of
gender (unlike French, un livre, une
chaise);

The teaching of the English grammar

is a direct and clear process and
sufficient practice is needed;
The principle design of grammar is to
teach learners to express themselves
with appropriateness in the language as
well as enable them to identify the
correct phrase and form of construction;

Descriptive Grammar
Advocated by Joseph Priestly in 1761;
It attempts to describe what people actually
say.
Traditional grammars told people how to use
a language how to speak and understand,
sounds, words, phrases, and sentences of
your language.
Descriptive grammars attempt to tell what is
in the language.

Prescriptive Grammar
First advocated by Robert Lowth in 1762
It is the correct forms or rules set by the
purists or scholars for people to obey so as
to prevent the language from corruption.
It set, instead of describe, the rules of the
language.
prescriptive grammars tell people what
should be in the language
For instance, the double negative sentence
in the following is considered a bad
sentence.
John aint got no money.

Grammar is a collection of rules concerning

what counts as socially acceptable and
unacceptable language use.
These rules in question primarily concern the
proper composition of sentences in written
language:
Dont start a sentence with a conjunction
Dont end a sentence with a preposition
Dont use sentence fragments
Dont use dangling participles
Dont use a plural pronoun to refer back to a
singular noun; etc.

Examples of Prescriptive Grammar

Dont use a double negative.
I didnt go nowhere.

Dont end a sentence in a preposition.

Who did you give the candy bar to?

Dont split infinitives.

to boldly go where no one has gone
before.

Historical Grammar
Focuses on how language changes over time
and how languages relate to one another.
Language is in a constant state of change and
its history is traced through surviving document.
Some languages such as the Germanic
language experience a second sound shift of
consonants shifted from their Indo-European
pronunciation.
Cause of shift:
habits of articulation,
geographical division,
language contact

Principles of Historical Linguistic

Whitney (1867) stresses that a child
learns language signs depending on how
they are used by those around him;
It is a system of arbitrary, conventional
signs;
Groups that differ in regional or social
dialects are potentially separate speech
communities;
English language can be traced to the
Germanic languages

Language change in terms of:

linguistic
vocabulary
sound
In linguistic change, the main focus is
on words and morphology;

In vocabulary development, change

occurs due to:
restriction and
specialisation;
Sound changes according to Sweet
(1892), are due to:
generalisation and
specialisation;

The Nature of Language

Neo-grammarians believe that language is
systematic in structure.
History of a language is determined by
phonetic change and analogic change.
In analogic change, s plural in English,
for example, is used in all forms except
with some exception such as feet,
geese, oxen.
In phonetic change, the sound of words
undergoes some substantial changes, e.g
art (are), thou, thee (you)

Contemporary Language
Whitney (1867) points out that a language
experience change through conservation
or alteration.
Language can change because people of
the speech communities accept the use of
the language ( e.g ICT terminology such as
hack, virus, port )

Questions to ponder:
What is language in your opinion?
Why is it necessary for language to
undergo a change?
Do you think teaching a historical change
of a language will help in a better
understanding of the language?